The 2025-26 Honors Program Application
Information Session Slides
If you were unable to attend the information session held on Wednesday, February 5, 2025 please review the session slides. If you still have questions, email Professor deWaard (adewaard@ucsd.edu) for more information.
Application Requirements
Application Form
Complete the online Honors Program Application. (You must be signed in with your Active Directory username and password).
Faculty-Student Agreement Form
Print the Faculty-Student Support Agreement Form, obtain your faculty mentor's signature, and upload to the Honors Program Application.
Honors Student Assessment Form
Your proposed Faculty Mentor must complete the online Honors Student Assessment Form. Remind your Faculty Mentor to complete this form and submit it by the application deadline.
Project Proposal
Your proposal should demonstrate that you are thinking about the issue/topic in a way that is new or original. This proposed honors project statement should be no less than 1 page, and should provide the following information:
-- The issue or general topic;
-- The reason you consider the topic important;
-- The question or set of questions you want to answer about the topic;
-- The method you want to use in answering those questions.
-- The issue or general topic;
-- The reason you consider the topic important;
-- The question or set of questions you want to answer about the topic;
-- The method you want to use in answering those questions.
Writing Sample
This is a piece of academic writing and may be in the form of a final or term paper written for a course or seminar. It may also be the answer to a take-home exam. It should be written by you alone and not co-authored as part of a group project, and it should demonstrate your ability to make an argument about a thesis and to communicate that argument clearly in your writing. The thesis on which your argument is based can either be one provided to you, say in an exam question, or one that you come up with on your own. In either case, the argument should be based on factual evidence of some kind.
The length of your writing sample can be from 3 to 10 pages. Keep in mind that what matters most is quality, not quantity. Therefore, a five-page paper in which you make a reasoned and clear argument about a thesis based on documented evidence, is better than a vague and disorganized 10-page paper.
You will need the writing sample at two stages in the application process. First, in finding a Faculty Mentor as it will help them decide if they can support your application and serve as your adviser. Second, you must submit it with your actual application.
The length of your writing sample can be from 3 to 10 pages. Keep in mind that what matters most is quality, not quantity. Therefore, a five-page paper in which you make a reasoned and clear argument about a thesis based on documented evidence, is better than a vague and disorganized 10-page paper.
You will need the writing sample at two stages in the application process. First, in finding a Faculty Mentor as it will help them decide if they can support your application and serve as your adviser. Second, you must submit it with your actual application.
Deadline to Apply
The 2025-26 application deadline has been extended to Monday, April 21, 2025 (Spring Quarter Week 4)
Program FAQ
What is a Faculty Mentor?
The Faculty Mentor provides you with individual guidance tailored to your specific project topic. They can guide you in finding resources for your project and provide individual feedback that helps you strengthen your project. The Faculty Mentor also helps to ensure that your final project can be presented or exhibited publicly.
How do I find a Faculty Mentor?
You can identify a Faculty Mentor based on your past experience working with a particular professor or based on a professor’s areas of research or both. If you have taken a course with a professor and really enjoyed working with them, that professor may be a good choice as a Faculty Mentor, especially if your intended project is related to their research interests or the subject of the course you took with them. If your project is not related to the course or the professor’s research interests, you can still ask them to suggest another professor as your Faculty Mentor. Alternatively, you can look up different professors’ research interests under their profiles at the Department website and identify the one whose interests are closest to your intended project topic.
When should I find a Faculty Mentor?
As early as possible so they can give you feedback on your proposal before you submit your application.
Why can’t I use a writing sample that I wrote with other students?
The writing sample is used to evaluate your academic writing skills. If you use a sample that you wrote with other students, it is hard to tell whether it accurately reflects your writing skills or theirs.
I am interested in production. May I do a production-based Honors project?
Yes. If you are interested in doing a production-based Honors project, it helps if you include an example of a production project you have done in your application materials. If you worked with others on the project, be sure to specify what your role was.
Why can I submit a sample of group work in production but not as a writing sample?
By the time you apply to the Honors Program, you will have several examples of your individual writing from most of the courses you have taken. However, since fewer of your courses will be in production, you will have fewer opportunities to produce individual production projects.